“Second Life Becoming Something that Isn’t Real to Create Real Results”

Second Life an online virtual paradise for people looking for a new life outside the boundaries and regulations of the “real” world. This social network gathering of individuals live separate lives as avatars to imamate their actions as if they are new people in a different world. Second Life has been target point for people looking for a virtual self that is not restricted by the physical world. This desire has created a large community of individuals and where ever there is a large group of people money has a chance to be profited from the group.

Businesses have used Second Life as a market area everything from advertisement to selling goods. From this idea sprouted the idea that the opposite can also happen to help businesses. Meaning why not use Second Life as a way to cut costs such as a method of E-Learning or having Virtual Meetings? Being able to meet from almost any place that has access to the internet allows people in difficult geographical locations to meet in one place cutting costs, gas emissions, time, and hassle from traveling. I heard of IBM using this Virtual world for meeting before, and I bet other companies and schools have also toyed with the idea of using it as well.

I myself can see great potential out of the idea of long distance interaction and E-Learning with the use of the internet. The internet is still in a maturing and development stage. Until they create faster bandwidths for everyone that handle the kind of internet that I foresee in my head the potential won’t be met. But let’s focus on the present. I don’t just want to focus on the Second Life community but rather what it is creating. An interactive internet and world.

E-Learning is the idea learning from any place that has internet or some form of network system. What if we could use these ideas and create a new level of interaction between people by creating real world interaction simulations that could open our minds and interaction skill level like we do in real life? What I’m getting at the idea of reading, listening, and seeing are very limited and have low impacts on our learning skills in the long run. But if we can interact with data and people, just like they were really there, it could really affect our learning abilities. Second Life is opening that idea of real interaction and communication. Right now we are just using it for pleasure, but if we were to focus its potential it could change the way we learn and interact. Many want to use the internet to break the boundaries between virtual and physical. Could it happen? Who knows? The point I’m getting at is E-Learning is very limited right now in the way it attracts people, how it teaches them, and how it makes people participate. What if we could make them want to interact just as if they were in a real classroom?

I am not supporting the idea of being dormant in your room surfing the internet or interacting over the internet all day, but the idea of braking barriers to cultures and availability is a possibility and has great potential to come out of it. Chat rooms that felt like you were talking with someone in the same room and virtual schools that helped you truly learn with a new level of interactive abilities.

In what ways do you see the internet changing E-Learning abilities in the future? Better yet how will Virtual world type atmospheres change the way we learn?